


You can take the boy out of Iowa, but you can't take Iowa out of the boy

by justsomerain



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Clint Bought A Farm, Drabble, Gen, Pre-Age of Ultron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 03:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2532011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsomerain/pseuds/justsomerain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everybody wants to know where Clint's been all this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You can take the boy out of Iowa, but you can't take Iowa out of the boy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fannyvonfabulus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fannyvonfabulus/gifts).



When Natasha asks him where the hell he’s been all this time (although a lot less kindly, and including a lot more Russian swearing) Clint just sort of shrugs, mumbles, and quickly changes the subject. It doesn’t usually work, not for very long, and it’s more luck than skill that makes the Black Widow drop this particular subject, because she has so many better things to do. For now, anyway. All Clint is absolutely certain of is that he is going to pay for not telling Natasha.

After all the archer knows full well that he should’ve been around for the aftermath of New York, and then S.H.I.E.L.D. falling, and everything that happened, but it’s just, he had important stuff to do, you know. This is what he tells Stark, who seems more interested in trying to upgrade his bow. At the suggestion that the multimillionaire could give his bow a self-aiming system, Clint bristles, grabs his bow out of Tony Stark’s hands, and leaves Iron Man with his drinks.

Thor never even asks, but just slaps him on the back a little harder than comfortable. He figures that really, with the Asgardian’s own absence (apart from that time when he apparently almost destroyed London), even if he did ask, he’s like the last person he owes an explanation. Instead, they drink together, and laugh hard about the worst jokes they can both make.

Instead of the direct approach, Banner just sort of casually asks him what he’s been doing all this time. After all, he’s also been laying low, even if some of that laying low was at Stark’s tower, playing with god knows what. Clint makes up a quick lie instead of telling Bruce the truth. But not one that would anger Banner. Never anger Banner. Bad decisions as he might make, he knows better than to anger Bruce and risk the Hulk coming out to play.

Finally, there is the Captain. And Clint isn’t entirely sure what it is about Steve Rogers that makes him unable to lie to the man, but it’s just a thing. Maybe it’s the straight-lacedness of him, the all-American goodness, the fact that the man’s a national symbol. (Or maybe it’s that he’s got a total hard on for Captain America, which is a secret he will take to his grave.) So, reluctantly, he ends up telling the Star Spangled Man the truth, paired with a lot of mumbling, shrugging, and Not Looking Steve In The Eyes Under Any Circumstances.

“Repeat that?”

Clint thinks for a moment to make a jab about age and hearing, but thinks better of it. “I bought a farm. And I got a dog.”


End file.
